What sealant for carby instal ?

Brumbyowner · Post by **Brumbyowner** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:41 pm

I am finally getting to the weber instal time. I have the adapter plates and gaskets, I used supplied gaskets and made the others from a roll bought from Auto1.

I am wondering if using LOCTITE No.3 non-hardening aviation sealant is ok. The reason is because I have a bottle of it!
It states resistant to petrol, oil, water, etc, or do I even need sealant.

Cheers, Stuart.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:28 pm

Sounds like it should do the job, resistant to fuel is the main concern I think. Non hardening, does that mean it sets to a rubberized kind of gasket?

Definitely use sealant, you don't want that carby pre-heat coolant passage to leak into the intake. Don't glob it on though, just a smear all the way round does the job.

Brumbyowner · Post by **Brumbyowner** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:39 pm

Thanks for that. I am just feeling my way thru, this is breaking new ground for me.

Willy Fisterbottom · Post by **Willy Fisterbottom** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:45 am

Gaskets go on without sealant, if anything use a bit of grease so they dont tear if you need to take the carby back off and you can re-use them .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:22 am

Willy Fisterbottom wrote:Gaskets go on without sealant, if anything use a bit of grease so they dont tear if you need to take the carby back off and you can re-use them .

^^ don't mind him, you'll hear those with better engineering background than your average tinkerer sprout this stuff they learned - [theory, not practice] " a gasket (if it's any good) was not made to use any sealant, rant,rant rant" . Heard it all before and it bloody echoes in the back of my head when I have to re-do a gasket bcause I thought I was being clever, following an engineers rant. They are never around when a gasket sucks in air, bleeds coolant etc.

A hands on

technician may have a contrary opinion

Go for the non hardening stuff - it assists the gasket to seal. It is aviation rated yeah ? Well, some aviation engineers must have specified it at some stage

Too much and excess dribbles all over the joint

C'mon, what engineer is then going to advise you to reuse a gasket -as it has already been squished once

Willy Fisterbottom · Post by **Willy Fisterbottom** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:39 am

steptoe wrote:^^ don't mind him, you'll hear those with better engineering background than your average tinkerer sprout this stuff they learned - [theory, not practice] " a gasket (if it's any good) was not made to use any sealant, rant,rant rant" . Heard it all before and it bloody echoes in the back of my head when I have to re-do a gasket bcause I thought I was being clever, following an engineers rant. They are never around when a gasket sucks in air, bleeds coolant etc.

A hands on technician may have a contrary opinion

Go for the non hardening stuff - it assists the gasket to seal. It is aviation rated yeah ? Well, some aviation engineers must have specified it at some stage

Too much and excess dribbles all over the joint

C'mon, what engineer is then going to advise you to reuse a gasket -as it has already been squished once

I'm as about hands on as it gets. Sealants aren't used from factory for a reason. Lazy car mechanics love sealant as it saves them from correctly prepare the gasket mating surface. Make sure it's clean and flat (use an oil stone). If you have corrosion or pitting use a metal putty like "Selleys Knead it" and get that oil stone out. Or be lazy and get the sealant out.
Not much compression on those gaslkets with only four 6mm bolts holding them down, it's not a head gasket. When playin with jets I've had the Carby on and of atleast 15 times now with the same gaskets and no leaks, but whatever.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:05 am

Oops I forgot this was one of those things, different opinions, different experiences.

IMO if the mating surfaces are perfectly flat and clean, a new quality gasket is used etc etc sure you may not need the goo. But to me using the goo doesn't cause any problems and if it saves me taking the carbie off again to fix a minute leak I'll use it every day. Problem is when people slather it on, it squeezes out on the inside and chunks break off internally.

Oh and I've seen plenty of far more dodgy stuff on cars that I've worked on, sins committed by dodgy mechanics and even dealership mechanics

Brumbyowner · Post by **Brumbyowner** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 11:40 am

Thanks everyone for all the comments, Tho I think I will go with the sealant this time.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:27 pm

steppy +1 willy 0

Willy Fisterbottom · Post by **Willy Fisterbottom** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:43 am

steptoe wrote:steppy +1 willy 0

Congratulations Steppy. It will only bother me if one day I ad this Brumby to my collection and have to scrape all that crap off after putting the Weber in the bin.

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 2:18 am

I'm another one of those "hands on" guys.. in fact RSR Performance is all about "hands on" but one of my pet hates is gasket goos and people using silicones on paper gaskets. Car manufactures would use it if it needed it !! If you are using a paper gasket, then coat the gasket with grease (don't be stingy with it), this will allow the gasket to swell and take up any (if you haven't prepared the mating surfaces correctly) gaps or scratches where you might get vacuum leaks.

Like Willy mentioned, the one thing you'll hate is having to pull that gasket off (which will come apart in 2) the manifold and carby, when you need to pull the carby off again.